Field Day with the Montrose Amateur Radio Club

This website is about ham radio too. And my favorite ham radio event of the year is field day. Here are photos of the Montrose, Colorado, club’s field day event.

This is the place! The sign points to the Field Day sign atop Sunset Mesa, just across the Uncompahgre River from Montrose, Colorado. All are welcome!

Field Day is held the last weekend in June every year. The point is to get hams out of their homes and into the “field” operating on emergency power. This exercise sharpens our skills and helps ensure our equipment and portable gear works.

Every ham recognizes the iconic Yagi antenna. This three element 20-meter beam has been a club fixture for years and was quickly put to good use.

Five star accommodations! This is the club's emergency communications trailer, equipped with tables for operating and logging.

Expert CW operator Steve Grewe, KØSX, operates 20 meters with one hand adjusting the radio and the other on the keyer paddle.

Get it in the computer! A prospective ham lends a hand, entering contacts into the computer software that will correlate our results and create our report.

We operated class 2A, meaning two stations on the air at the same time operating on emergency power. One of the purposes of Field Day is to encourage prospective hams and hams that haven’t been on the air in awhile to participate. The so-called “GOTA Station” (Get On the Air) is a third station we don’t have to count, and any contacts made are added to our score. Anyone can use the GOTA station under the mentoring supervision of a licensed ham.

Get On The Air! Steve Schroeder, KIØKY, assists a prospective ham at the GOTA station, coaching him through a Field Day QSO.

Working Class 2A: Here's our other station, also at the moment operating CW.

Here's the source of the magic! This antenna tuner sits between the second trailer and the 40-meter antenna.

Talking to the head guys! Here Lew French, KCØUER, logs while visitor Tom Palmieri, K2PJ, from Surfside Beach, SC, works W1AW. This is a still from a video clip capturing the actual QSO.

No points left on the table! We get extra points for making a contact or two using solar power. Here the club's truly ancient photovoltaic cells sit at the ready.

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